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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Unnatural Causes

There is a series on PBS that I’ve caught portions of from time to time. It’s called “Unnatural Causes: is inequality making us sick?” That link will take you to the show site which has more information including videos, transcripts, other sites, articles.

The series as a whole looks at different groups & from different perspectives: Louisville, KY and people in low, middle & upper class – who gets sicker and who stays healthier . . . Why are infant mortality rates of African Americans twice that of Whites . . . Populations who have the highest rate of Type II Diabetes . . . communities that have lost industries seeing health issues skyrocket . . . Marshall Islanders whose lives were affected when the U.S. began using their outer islands for extensive nuclear testing after WWII (seriously, does this not make you say a huge WTF?!?!) . . .

A while back I saw the episode on Type II Diabetes and one of the industry episodes (there are 2, the 2nd one focuses on a Michigan manufacturing town).

The population with the highest rate of Type II Diabetes in the world are Native American tribes in Arizona, the Pima and Tohono O’odham. Researchers tie the rise in the disease to the water from the Gila River being cut off from them, as it was navigated to new settlements upriver by newcomers (who had new U.S. laws on their side). Basically they were no longer able to grow food (something they were previously able to do even in their dessert, through complex irrigation techniques) and eventually had to depend solely on “commodity food” from the government. Picture warehouses of Sam’s & Costco sized food packages of things like canned meat, chips, white bread, lard . . . little to no veggies or fruits & certainly not fresh – all canned. This went on for 100 years or so, it wasn’t until the last decade that fresh food was sent. On their entire reservation there is only one small grocery store with a tiny produce section.

It also mentioned that populations who have the highest rates of Type II Diabetes (African Americans and Aboriginal people in Australia were also mentioned) tend to be people who have been displaced from their original habitat. Makes sense – suddenly they no longer are able to find/grow/eat their usual foods and have to “make do” with what they can find or that is provided for them. Consider how today’s “soul foods” are tied to the leftover foods that were tossed to slaves, and how these foods have now become a part of African American heritage & culture. When looking at the Native groups, it was mentioned that “fry bread” is actually not a food that native peoples ever ate – it comes from the commodity food staples that were provided by the government after water supply was cut off – flour, lard, refined sugar . . .

The next episode moved to Richmond, California and looked at the Southeast Asian community there and the high rate of heart disease and other health problems that are exacerbated by the level of stress the residents feel from living in poverty. Their story was used to explain how low-income communities not only have to deal with the regular problems that everyone has to deal with, but that they have less RESOURCES to solve the problems, or to manage their health in relation to the problems. It went into a description of the way stress affects the body and what health problems often come from people who are feeling stress all day long.

Richmond was a war boom town (WWII) but when the war was over, industries left Richmond so many people moved from the city and out to the suburbs. The problem is that the only people approved for home loans were middle-income whites, so low-income whites and ALL people of color had to either relocate entirely, or stay within Richmond which was almost deserted and didn’t have an economy to support good schools, health services, public services, etc. If you’ve read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the community in that book is very similar to Richmond. The family focused on in this episode attempted to move out of Richmond but couldn't afford it. Their daughter was later murdered by a gang member who thought she was someone else. The father had a major heart attack due to his heart disease and even working will put too much strain on him to heal - they don't know how their family will survive without his income.

Lastly the special focused on High Point which was a neighborhood in Seattle that was also a war-boom area, set up with “temporary housing” back in the 40s, to house industrial workers. The war ended, industries shut down, but the workforce had nowhere to go so they stayed in the sub-par housing which was still standing 60 years later (hardly temporary). High Point was able to turn things around, though – community activists got together and fought for grant money (possibly also state or federal funding but I can’t remember for sure) and were able to tear down the bad housing and build new housing as well as community services like parks, community centers, clinics, gardens . . .

Unfortunately most low-income people are not used to having a voice or power and they are trained to not expect much or that if they try only the exceptional will be successful, so there are more Richmonds than High Points.

This stuff . . . not just specifically health, but all aspects of life which are affected by being poor, disenfranchised, uneducated, dis-counted, ignored, oppressed, etc. . . . this is what I have a passion for. I’m not sure how it will all work out, but this is the stuff I want to spend the rest of my life fighting and helping to change.

2 comments:

A little observation on diabetes... I've studied reiki for several years (a way of life that teaches the connection between the mind and our health), and you know how diabetes has to do with a lack of control over sugar in our body? Well, he "emotional" meaning of diabetes is that it appears in people who in their childhood lacked 'sweetness'. That is, the sweetness of a mother's touch, the sweet comfort of feeling protected, the encouragement of those around him/her, etc. That perfectly fits the description of the difficult times faced by those displaced and separated from their loved ones.

About Me

I'm a married, working mother of 3. In my daydream life I have a horse ranch in Colorado where I live when not touring small clubs, because, you know, I'm a singer-songwriter. In real life I work in higher ed in Chicago, dabble with sewing and knitting for my Etsy shop, and keep saying that THIS will be the year I teach myself to play the guitar. I get hot & bothered by music, dance, social justice and stuff that makes me laugh.